Capturing the Art of Nature
Skyline Park
A simple area with a lovely city view
Category
Parks on the Air
2022
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Skyline Park is really just a right-of-way for the power transmission lines that run through the middle of the city. The area designated as the park is the high point for the lines on Mary Hill. While walking the east-west length of the park one can enjoy a western view of Burnaby’s Metrotown on the horizon. It is also an off-leash area so dog owners frequent the area to exercise their four-footers. I decided to activate this park today because it still was never activated in the POTA program. Its two neighbours were both done multiple times but I guess those activators felt the power lines too much trouble to bother with this one.
The day looked to be a lovely one for hanging around outdoors. In fact, sitting in the warm sun was a welcome relief to the damp weather we had been experiencing though one was starting to get a bit heated. I will need to use some sun-screen next time. I left home after lunch and in 30 minutes I was pulling up to the park boundary. I selected the eastern side as the road looked less busy on the map. I drove past the park looking for a spot to park as the road – Western Road – was no parking. Turning back past the park the first side road proved to be ideal for parking and a very short walk to the park. So, I turned in and turned around to park at the corner just before the intersection. I then loaded the cart and walked to the park.
The trail through the grass was well traveled and made pulling the cart easy, even up the hill it followed to the high point. The grass on the north side of the path and furthest from the power lines looked a bit soggy so I decided to wander further up the hill and there I found an ideal spot to set up. I parked the cart and wandered the area a bit to gather some photos, done with that I returned to the cart and planned my deployment. I used a tree on the lower north side and my fence post on the upper south next to the path. I sat facing east to keep the sun out of my face and then I starting calling. The noise floor was high but not overly. I tried the 20m band filter but it didn’t seem to reduce the noise level any so I won’t bother with it any more. As the noise was high, I opted to stay on 20m for the day so I could maximize my chances of getting enough contacts.
It wasn’t long before I had my first contact in the log, a chap in northern California, that was quickly followed by Arizona and Arkansas. I was getting out but hearing was definitely a challenge. I continued operating for a half hour having logged 15 contacts in that time, but then the numbers dried up and I decided not to bother re-spotting myself as I had enough. As I was packing up a lady with a Golden Doodle came by asking about my activity. We had a nice chat about the radio event and about dogs. Her boy was a bit put out as there were no other dogs out today. A few had been by earlier but generally it was a quiet afternoon.
Once packed up, I headed back the route I came in on. The traffic was starting to build for rush -hour and I got delayed in a couple of spots but generally it was a nice drive home. The park was actually quite nice to operate in and I am not really sure why it was being ignored by the others. I think the night view of the city would be quite pretty from this park as would a mid-winter sunset.